In the summer of 2000, I was in my second year of college at UCSD. I’d only been surfing about four years and it had already become the biggest thing in my life, and all-consuming passion that drove every decision. I was getting paid to surf, almost enough to live on. I’d won my first professional contest, starting traveling a bit to compete. I had sponsors, photos in magazines, and people wanting my autograph. It was all very new and exciting, trying to find my place within the pro surfing world that I desperately wanted to be a part of.

Somehow someone chose me to be the subject of an episode for Voice of America – a US run propaganda machine that pumps out human interest stories for the rest of the world to admire. A reporter with a camera followed me around for a couple of weeks and filmed my life. I had mostly forgotten about the whole experience until I came across the tape while cleaning out some old boxes of keepsakes. I imported it, added some of my own commentary, and uploaded to YouTube.